Many of the European Union’s rural areas face a common challenge, as their capacity to create high-quality, sustainable jobs has fallen behind that of urban areas. Generally, incomes are lower in rural regions than in towns or cities and there are fewer job opportunities. Marginalized youth living in rural areas have a problem getting good jobs and continued education to get ahead in life and contribute to society. They’re facing unemployment & they don’t know how to get out of their situation. One of the obvious solutions for them is to move to the city and try to get a job there. Even if they do manage to get one, it is usually a low-paying one. They would still be struggling in life, not advancing in terms of personal development and not contributing much to society. Starting a business in rural areas would be a great vehicle for capitalizing on this asset that they already have. There’s high demand for certain things in rural areas that marginalized youth could take time to explore and fulfill.

This project aimed to raise awareness of their existing asset, provide them with the skills on how to identify the business opportunities that exist in rural areas & develop the idea. One of the biggest impacts from this is that they can also create jobs for other people in rural areas and especially youth with fewer opportunities. Apart from that, they can also help inspire other marginalized youth to create other businesses in the rural areas. One of the best ways marginalized youth & youth with lesser opportunities can use to be self-sustaining and self- reliant is by starting businesses. Since starting businesses in urban areas can be expensive and highly competitive, starting businesses in rural areas is a feasible alternative for them. This is great because they can capitalize the existing asset of their own familiarity of their hometowns, while fulfilling the demands that are not being met in rural areas. In order to reach this goal, the following objectives have been set:

introduce youth to the essentials of entrepreneurship in rural areas & how to share the knowledge with others.

inspire marginalized youth to create businesses in rural areas, as well as provide the key skills needed for that;

generate new business ideas that will work well in rural areas of participating countries & show examples of successful businesses in rural areas to inspire them;

Create businesses that include the unemployed/underprivileged communities living in rural areas, thus decreasing rural unemployment & building accountability for the community;

create a spill-over effect by inspiring other communities and partner countries to contribute to the established rural businesses or to create new businesses in rural areas themselves.

Therefore, a youth exchange for the underprivileged youth from rural areas wasorganized, which would address the previously mentioned problems. Apart from educating the youth about entrepreneurship in rural areas & turning their ideas into practice, the setting of the project will also:

increase the youth’ problem-solving skills in a tough environment;

educate youth how to identify demands for products & services, and how to capitalize on them;

involve the youth in discussions and decision making in an international & multicultural environment;

enhance social skills, multilingualism and help the youth and the youth workers grow professionally.

At the same time, the project aimed to facilitate a discussion on entrepreneurship in rural areas that would effectively reach the wider audiences & promote creation of such enterprises across Europe.

Generation of new entrepreneurship ideas in Rural areas; Discussions in non-formal environment;

Info sessions with local people;

City visit of Cosenza and interviews;

Analyses of relevant video materials;

Specialized group exercises, games, quizzes, and much more. Since the project goal is to reach the public and disseminate the results effectively: special photos & videos, as well as a website will be prepared by the participants.